Open Robotics launches Open Source Robotics Alliance

The Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF) has announce the creation of the Open Source Robotics Alliance (OSRA), a new initiative to strengthen the governance of open-source robotics software projects and ensure the health of the Robot Operating System (ROS) Suite community. The OSRF said the OSRA will use a mixed membership and meritocratic model, following other successful foundations for open-source projects, including The Linux Foundation and the Eclipse Foundation.

The OSRA is extending an open invitation to all community stakeholders to participate in the technical oversight, direction, development and support of the OSRF’s open source projects — ROS, Gazebo, Open-RMF and their infrastructure. Involvement across the robotics ecosystem is crucial to this initiative. The Alliance has received early support from prominent organisations such as NVIDIA, the inaugural Platinum member.

“NVIDIA develops with ROS 2 to bring accelerated computing and AI to developers, researchers and commercial applications,” said Gordon Grigor, VP Robotics Software, NVIDIA. “As an inaugural platinum member of OSRA, we will collaborate to advance open-source robotics throughout the ecosystem by aiding development efforts, and providing governance and continuity.”

Intrinsic also continues its support of Open Robotics with its inaugural Platinum membership. “From the numerous contributions made by our team at Intrinsic across projects like ROS, Gazebo and Open-RMF as part of the Open Robotics community, to our acquisition of the Open Source Robotics Corporation (OSRC), we’ve invested deeply in the open source community, and we look forward to continuing our support of the ecosystem as an inaugural member of the OSRA,” said Wendy Tan White, CEO of Intrinsic.

Qualcomm Technologies rounds out the inaugural Platinum membership group and signals its commitment to open source robotics as well.

“Qualcomm Technologies is excited to join the Open Source Robotics Alliance (OSRA) to help drive the development of open-source robotics software and foster the growth of the vibrant ROS Suite developer community,” said Dev Singh, Vice President of Business Development and Head of Robotics & Industrial Automation at Qualcomm Technologies. “Leveraging our longstanding history in on-device AI processing and heterogeneous computing, our comprehensive family of robotics platforms addresses all types of robots to deliver the benefits of AI at the edge.”

NVIDIA, Intrinsic and Qualcomm Technologies join nine other inaugural members at press time, including Gold members Apex.ai and Zettascale; Silver members Clearpath Robotics, Ekumen, eProsima and PickNik; and Associate member Silicon Valley Robotics. Initial supporting organisations include Canonical and Open Navigation. Incoming members include Bosch and ROS-Industrial, and several others to be announced soon.

Membership applications are now open for organisations and individuals interested in joining the OSRA and supporting the future of open source robotics.

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